The next morning both Eloise and he were the first people up once more, and she came to him, holding one of the more elaborate spears he had created. It had a butterfly design stretching all the way up the shaft. She held it out to him.

  “It’s my favourite. You broke your spear saving me, so have it.”

  Tom didn’t need her favourite one; her worst would have been fine, but nor was he about to reject the spear and risk losing the bonus.

  “Thank you, Eloise.” He plucked it from her grasp and put it straight into his soul storage before she could take it back.

  Curiously, he checked what it had transformed into.

  Item: Spear of Swiftness – Tier 3.

  Applies a minor buff to movement speed based on your perception.

  Tom smiled at the evidence of his title at work.

  It had come from the GODs, and he had known it was powerful from the description. However, seeing it in action, especially here, in a resource-starved environment, was amazing. Now that he had this weapon, the title had proved itself to be more valuable than either of his traits – and they, particularly the one Everlyn had gotten for him, had been important in the recent fights.

  While the trait that let him cast every single spell with ten mana invested every six minutes had been huge, this weapon was better. The primary benefit was about it being a tier-three item. It would have let him cut through the monsters they had fought like they were made of tissue paper. Every blow would have landed, as if it was infused with an extra strong Power Strike, and all without causing skill exhaustion. There was no question if it was safe to show this to the others – to show that he would be able to solo the entire floor that he and Kang combined had struggled to defeat without pausing once. All the fights would be rendered trivial.

  That benefit didn’t even take into account the apparent movement buff associated with the weapon. That was an example of more title shenanigans because it sounded like it was going to synergise with the time dilation that occurred when creatures faster than him locked onto him. While he doubted it would boost him to be as fast as them, any closing of the gap would help.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t have the freedom to use it openly; or, at least, not yet. The upgraded tiers would only be persistent if no one knew that it had originally been gifted to him in a tier zero state. One slip, and, as he imagined, the weapon would revert back to its near-useless base status; and who knew what other longer-term penalties might end up being applied to his title?

  Secrecy and deniability were called for.

  It was lucky he had been planning for this moment since he started creating the weapons for the girls.

  The butterfly etchings that had made it both distinctive and Eloise’s favourite were deliberately shallow. With Living Wood, he would transform them into mini-dragons and make the weapon unrecognisable. The higher tiered base material would make it a slower process than what it would be on a weaker weapon, but the number of changes he needed to implement were small. Living Wood had to be a peak skill in its tier. It would still work on higher-tiered materials, and only demanded additional time to do so. For the prize of using his new glorious murder tool freely, it would be worth the effort. Once the redesign was complete, he would create another spear as a clone of Eloise’s favourite butterfly one. Then, with some sleight of hand, he would allow them to witness the decoy being destroyed; after that, he would be able to use the dragon spear without fear of contaminating the upgradability of future gifts.

  He would discuss it with Adam, but he was pretty sure the trial was going to let him lie and say that he had found it as a mini reward. That would cover the rest of the bases he needed.

  Later in the day, they entered the first floor again. Kang moved with noticeable worry, and Tom felt like kicking him. The almost-naked fear risked setting the girls off, and, while he couldn’t tell him than they had been the day before… With a second tier three weapon in his inventory, Tom was sure of their success.

  They didn’t overextend, and everything went smoothly.

  Four days later, completely refreshed, they approached the boss’ room.

  They peered through the doors before entering to see what they were facing.

  A single large pink, wrinkly mass was sleeping on the floor, facing away from them. Its positioning made it impossible to determine its features, but Tom was guessing that they were facing a bear, or possibly a giant cat or a wolf. Whatever it was, it must have weighed two hundred or more kilograms versus the trash mobs where the heaviest one was only twenty.

  “It’s a big one.” Kang said quietly.

  “I’m worried about its mind attacks. I’m kind of thinking it’s best if I take it by myself.” Tom told him. If he could use his new spear, the fight would be beyond trivial. “You guys hide behind the door so that you won’t get struck by any stray mental assaults.”

  Kang’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “Do you think the mind attacks will be that strong?” Briana asked.

  Tom nodded at her. “Yes, I do. If that part of its skill set has scaled up the same as its size, you three might be in danger.”

  Kang stared suspiciously at him, and Tom wondered what he was thinking. “How much of this is based on your top-secret stuff?”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Tom hesitated. He didn’t actually think this boss fight was going to be that dangerous, even if he couldn’t use his new toy. The correct choice was clear. His priority had to be about protecting his future upgrade capacity. “None of it. Just speculating on its likely abilities.”

  The other boy bit his lip. “It’s a gamble, isn’t it?”

  “Also, I have all my skills available; with a single monster to fight, I’m not sure adding you to the battle makes much of a difference. If it can hurt me, you’re toast.”

  “With Quick Step, I’m not that helpless.”

  “It doesn’t help that much, Kang. Even without me using magic, you can’t beat me head on. When my life, as opposed to just my pride, is on the line, Danger Sense is even more powerful.”

  “I’m not there to beat it. I’m there to pile on the hurt once you stun it.” Kang told him. “Even with access to all your Power Strikes, you might not be able to do enough sustained damage to take it down.”

  “If that would be the case, I can call you in mid-battle,” Tom countered. “I still think I should solo it.”

  “I don’t,” Kang said quietly. “If you die, we’re all going to join you anyway. I’d prefer to be there to fight with you rather than have a month of knowing my death’s guaranteed.”

  “But if it has an area of effect attack...”

  “We have fate in play.” Kang reminded him. “I don’t think its base attack will be lethal.”

  Tom thought about the most effective method to make his argument.

  “We’re coming in,” Kang told him firmly. “I won’t commit to the fight recklessly. We’ll hold back and won’t get too close. My job will be to defend the girls, but also to be ready to rush in once it’s stunned to help kill it.”

  Tom really couldn’t see a way to push a different outcome without causing longer-term problems, and, even if they promised to stay out of the room, there was always a risk they would peak, which might reveal the nature of his new spear anyway. It wasn’t disguised enough to be revealed, and he shouldn’t risk it for a the sake of a small advantage.

  “Fine.” He declared.

  “I’m glad you agreed,” Kang told him. “You’re a part of the team, and you need to get used to that.”

  With the decision made, they wasted no more time, and Tom immediately jogged straight at the monster. It unfurled and leapt to its feet the moment he entered the room.

  He was facing a giant cat whose head was on a level with Tom’s, but at the same time it was thick with solid muscles. If it stood on its hind legs, its head would have been higher than Dimitri’s.

  The creature hissed at him, and then Tom’s brain felt like it had been struck by an ice pick; however, the discomfort was only there for a moment before vanishing.

  Tom managed not to stumble and continued to charge forward as he prepared to fight spear tip to claw, so to speak. However, within a step, the cat’s eyes rolled back into its skull, showing its pinks - the equivalent of a human’s whites - and it collapsed dramatically.

  It was not dead because its chest still moved up and down as it breathed; however, it was comatose. This was a chance to cheese the entire fight.

  “Kang,” he yelled as he brought the spear down and stabbed the tip with the aid of Power Strike into the nearest eye socket as hard as he could. The squishy orb burst as its skin was cut by his skill, but, even enhanced as it was, his weapon bounced off bone and failed to penetrate as deeply as he had been aiming.

  Tom didn’t care. He had a singular focus, and there was no room for hesitation.

  He repeated the attack, and felt the bone crack under the blow.

  No axe-wielding fighter moved to join him, and, when he glanced back, he saw that all three of them were lying prone on the ground. A pang of concern went through him, but he couldn’t worry about them until the monster was dead.

  Briefly, he considered switching weapons. The tier-three version would not need these multiple strikes to blast through the bone. He refrained from indulging in the impulse, however. While the creature remained unconscious, there was no need to change anything.

  Out, up, down and in.

  He thrust the spear tip deep; on the fourth attempt, something gave, and the weapon sunk a good six inches in. That was a full adult’s hand-length of metal and wood, and it had penetrated right into the creature’s brain. He immediately jimmied it, using the leverage of the long shaft to scramble the brain like you would do with eggs.

  It was probably enough, but Adam had told them how the place was structured and there was no need to hold back.

  Without hesitation, he used the free trio of Spark, Electricity Explosion, and Lightning Bolt within the cranium simultaneously. Thirty mana of heat and power was released into a confined space.

  There was a hissing, sizzling sound that sounded far better than what the monsters produced, and then the undamaged eye burst open in a spray of super-heated liquid. Steam billowed out of both eyeholes, and Tom dropped his spear and stepped away to stop his hands from getting burnt, leaving the weapon embedded where it had been.

  The creature was almost certainly well and truly deceased, but Tom didn’t take that for granted. He ducked into the stinky cloud of steam, the stench of blood filling it, and dropped a hand to touch the wrinkly skin.

  Touch Heal activated and confirmed it was very much and very permanently dead, even if most of the body currently lived. The brain had mostly been vaporised, and there was no way it was healing from that outcome.

  He immediately ran over to the others, and one touch to Briana’s skin confirmed that, while she had knocked unconscious by the mind attack, she had not suffered any concerning damage. There wasn’t anything for his healing to fix.

  All he could do was wait. He sat down next to them.

  They had won, but it felt anticlimactic, probably because this was the first and he easiest of the three challenges they were to face. Yet with all of them unconscious, it all felt hollow, a challenge they shouldn’t have been doing. One they had only been sucked into because of how they had treated Briana.

  It took them two lonely minutes to awake.

  Briana was first. “My head, I can’t see properly.”

  Once more, he tried healing her, but it was futile. “You’re safe,” he assured her. “Keep your eyes shut, and it will pass.”

  Kang was the next to stir, and he, unlike Briana, forced himself to open his blood-shot eyes and look around. “Is it over?”

  “Yes, the boss is dead.”

  “You were right about the mental attack, weren’t you?”

  Tom smiled. “Yes, and you’re suffering the aftereffects. Unfortunately, it’s not something I can heal.” Briana next to them was whimpering softly. “I already tried it with her.”

  “I guess we should have stayed outside after all.”

  Tom shrugged. “All that matters is that we won, and your reasoning was sound. We’re six-year-olds. It’s not like any of us have had a chance to buy proper identification skills.”

  “I’ll need to push Dimitri to rectify that.” Kang said.

  Tom chuckled. “I’m sure he didn’t factor in that we’d be fighting in the dark hole trials. Advanced identification is not typically a skill kids our age need.”

  “True. So, was the fight challenging?”

  “Not at all. It was just an execution. Its mind attack was reflected back on it and knocked it out. I stabbed it through the eye and then fried its brain. It took about six seconds total, and it didn’t even twitch a muscle while I was doing it.”

  “Good. That’s good,” Kang said with a yawn. “I guess the floor wasn’t very difficult after all. When are we doing the next one?”

  “A week,” Tom said after a moment’s thought. “It took us five days to complete this floor. Future floors will take longer. So, I’m not sure we can afford to wait any longer than that. Two weeks for floor two, and four for the last one.”

  Kang just groaned in response and lowered his head to the ground. “Ten minutes. Give us ten minutes, and then we’ll go back.”